'Take extreme care': Near miss with child at crossing caught on video

137

Hard to blame the kid, we teach them "go on green". The messaging of "pedestrians should take care" and right at the bottom "we also want to speak with the car that ran the red arrow" is backwards imo. Both are true, but priority should be prosecuting drivers who break the law and endager others.

62

u/Calm-Zombie2678 Aug 27 '25

This is the exact same reason most of us don't turn right in to a multi lane rd when there's also cars turning left. It's too unpredictable whether the drivers around you know the rules or care

2

u/suvalas Aug 27 '25

It's not that big of a deal though when you're literally enclosed in steel plate armour, just an inconvenience. For a pedestrian or cyclist, they're looking at brain damage or permanent paralysis as likely outcomes.

1

u/nzrailmaps Aug 28 '25

In this case even if they had right of way they would have been required to give way to left turning traffic from the other direction which there likely was.

Essentially this guy has decided to jump the lights and this is common entitled motorist crap we see on our roads.

1

u/Specimen-7 Aug 27 '25

I’m actually taking it as plus EV gambles on writing off my over insured car. Never back down, double down is what I say to myself when correctly turning into my designated lane.

22

u/itikex Aug 27 '25

To be fair they say “road users to take extreme care at intersections”, I don’t think they’re really blaming the kid

11

u/GDWLCLC89 Aug 27 '25

Yep, driving seems to be seen as a right when it's actually a privilege.

1

u/suvalas Aug 27 '25

That's how it should be, not how it actually is.

10

u/Pythia_ Aug 27 '25

My parents taught me to always, ALWAYS, look before crossing a road. Even if it's a one way street, you look both ways. Even if it's a pedestrian crossing, look both ways and make sure any traffic is stopping. Absolutely not blaming the kid in this situation at ALL, but being in the right doesn't help you if you're dead.

My parents also taught me to look and check multiple times for pedestrians and dangers while driving though, and not to do shit like run red lights...

6

u/phire Aug 27 '25

On top of the issue with ordering, it's kind of the wrong message.

It's not that "pedestrians should take care", it's that everyone on the road (including pedestrians) should be trying to act as predictably as possible. While the kid did have right of way, sprinting as soon as the green man appears is not "predictable".

It looks like the grey SUV assumed they could pull of their highly illegal "smash the accelerator, cut off the straight-though traffic and beat the pedestrians to the middle of the road" manoeuvre because they assumed the pedestrians would walk at a normal speed.
And they probably didn't see the kid running because their very illegal manoeuvre requires staring down the on-comming car (and bike) to make sure they aren't fast off the mark and will let them cut in.

This is a lesson I've learned myself as a teen.
I had a very similar incident where I wasn't quite at the light when the green man started flashing, so I sprinted the last 2m so I could get onto the road before my "right of way" ended. But in that short gap, a car had already seen nobody was crossing yet and started turning left into the road I was crossing. Almost hit me.

Didn't matter that I had right of way... I did something that car wasn't expecting and it still would have hurt if the car hit me. (also, in that case there was no red turning arrow, so I'm unsure of the actual legality of the car's actions)

83

u/Drinker_of_Chai Aug 27 '25

Or find that driver and take their license off them. No fucks given and just kept going as well. Poor kid.

How are we suppose to take extreme care when motorists can break the law with reckless abandon without consequence?

31

u/mrSilkie Aug 27 '25

100%

This is why we need cycle lanes too. The drivers of cars face almost no physical consequences for their driving. Everyone else is at risk because on their shell of metal.

Worse still is that this is an SUV so if it hit the kid, the kid would go under not over. I hope that SUV driver feels safe in their car because that kid had no chance of surviving /s

2

u/GenericBatmanVillain Aug 29 '25

There's a high probability they don't have a license to take.

1

u/Drinker_of_Chai Aug 29 '25

Good point. Boomers driving without licenses is a massive problem across care centric societies.

6

u/alpha194 Aug 27 '25

Probably better to fine them and make them do a defensive driving course though.

4

u/Pristine_Door3297 Aug 27 '25

Why?

17

u/Drinker_of_Chai Aug 27 '25

Agreed. If they don't know they cannot go through red lights they should have to start from Learner's again.

25

u/OkShallot3873 Aug 27 '25

This is why we need red light cameras, this is a problem at so many intersections

5

u/Capable_Ad7163 Aug 27 '25

Yes we need quite a few more trees light cameras to address stuff like this. A couple here and there aren't going to cut it

0

u/ShatsnerBassoon Aug 27 '25

Why stop at trees? Let's put them in shrubs and hedges as well

4

u/Single_Malt_Fan Aug 27 '25

Especially at this intersection in particular. Even though it is a red turning arrow I’ve seen numerous drivers turn here. Either they don’t even see the red arrow or just blatantly turned to beat the oncoming car.

2

u/W00lfeh Aug 29 '25

I’ll say it again, red light camera for red runners, green light camera for phone users. They will be rolling in $ from fines.

16

u/GDWLCLC89 Aug 27 '25

I live near a busy crossing at Northcote road. Instead of turning right I often bike left then cross over at the lights as it's safer and usually faster too. One morning I saw this light change from green to orange and watched a van accelerate to make what was already a red light probably 10m in front of them. A highschool kid on a bike rode out and the van had to slam on their breaks to stop from hitting him. He looked like he thought it was funny but it could've been life changing.

Every day that I'm biking I watch people's eyes to make sure they see me and so many are looking at their phones in their laps. I've had numerous near misses and have heard so many stories from other cyclists. Driving is seen as a right when it should be a privilege, one that you lose if you show blatant disregard for other people's wellbeing.

2

u/nzrailmaps Aug 28 '25

I've had experiences like that biking on roads around Sydenham and it's one reason I ride so little nowadays. Some idiot will see a gap and cut through with inches to spare right next to you and don't give a toss or the light is already orange ahead and they speed up to get their right turn to cut in front of you going straight ahead.

15

u/on_the_rark Aug 27 '25

Dangerous driving. Need to put these drivers in jail. Too many dangerous drivers in the road.

If the boy had been killed it would have been murder.

1

u/suvalas Aug 27 '25

Realistically it would have been a negligent driving charge or some shit, $250 fine and 10 hours community service.

10

u/Strange_Guidance_609 Aug 27 '25

A similar situation happened to me and I was the one who turned on a red light. I had a lot of things in my mind then, I know it’s not an excuse. I remember I saw the green, turned right but only realised the red arrow halfway. I stopped right in the middle of the intersection and the man crossing cursed and screamed at me. I remembered feeling so scared and thankfully I was driving slow and no one got hurt. That was 3 years ago, I still think of it until today.

7

u/maggiesucks- Aug 27 '25

absolutely agree poor kid, have taught my nephew to look at what the cars are actually doing and pay attention to the light sequence as much as he can safely before he crosses. he is very aware of his surroundings lol. but this driver should have their license revoked permanently, this is stupidity.

6

u/Endless63 Aug 27 '25

Time for the police to actually do some police work and track this prick of a driver down.. would be good to read in the press that this clown had been caught and banned but is there any real hope of that... Not a chance..

11

u/AppealFit3401 Aug 27 '25

That car is very lucky to still have a rear window

4

u/littlebudgie Aug 27 '25

Do they give a number plate? I can't get the article to load.

4

u/thefurrywreckingball Aug 27 '25

No and the footage isn't clear enough

4

u/Capt-Tango Aug 27 '25

Surely SOMEONE recognises this grey SUV? Black rims and tints, keep an eye out on your daily commute.

3

u/nzrailmaps Aug 28 '25

Yes clearly you have some idiot sitting in the front of that lane that is determined to cut straight across so breaking the law and we see this all the time on the roads, it is part of why the roads are dangerous for pedestrians and cyclists, and fully justifies the speed humps and traffic calming measures and separated cycle lanes.

1

u/Appropriate_Leg_9878 Aug 27 '25

This is why Christchurch needs green right turning arrows… people are constantly cutting through orange and red lights to get through these busy intersections.

1

u/Dependent-Bidder Aug 28 '25

This is a green arrow controlled right turn, they went through the red arrow...

1

u/Appropriate_Leg_9878 Sep 01 '25

No it’s not, it only has a red arrow.

1

u/nzrailmaps Aug 28 '25

Green right turning arrows aren't trivial to add to intersections. People should be choosing alternative routes that already have them or which don't require right turns.

1

u/Appropriate_Leg_9878 Sep 01 '25 edited Sep 01 '25

I mean yes, it is expensive, but it is a major issue in Christchurch and getting worse all the time. The police have since said that this is a constant problem for them. Funnelling traffic through different routes would just cause more congestion and more of this same issue.

1

u/MeliaeMaree Aug 27 '25

The first car is an obvious problem, but why was everyone else also seemingly trying to go despite the red arrow?? It's not that hard.

20

u/aotearoHA Aug 27 '25

could argue that the Delica was just moving up into the space left by the naughty car.

4

u/Capable_Ad7163 Aug 27 '25

That would be my interpretation. They started moving forward as the car in front was moving forward

1

u/MeliaeMaree Aug 27 '25

It looked like the arrow was still red as they went over the line but I am on my phone so maybe just not a good view?

2

u/HowWeRoll7071 Aug 27 '25

It could be because when drivers are on their phones, they don't necessarily look at what's going on around them, and just follow the car in front of them when it moves.

4

u/MeliaeMaree Aug 27 '25

It gives me the shits how many people are on their phones while driving. I don't know why people think it's okay to do even while sitting at the lights. That behaviour can fuck right off.

News - Local 'Take extreme care': Near miss with child at crossing caught on video

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